


The Ballad of Yuno Grinberryall

by AvaCelt



Series: 2020 Bollywood Prompt Fills [4]
Category: Black Clover - Tabata Yuki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cannibalism, Child Murder, Dark Fairy Tale Elements, Horror, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Inspired by Bollywood, M/M, Suicide Attempt, Yuno-centric, that AU where Father Orsi does NOT raise Yuno and it all goes to Hell from there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:07:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27097045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvaCelt/pseuds/AvaCelt
Summary: Yuno Grinberryall through the years - as soldier, lover, and king. [AU where Yuno is raised by the Spade Resistance army; YunoAsu; YunoLeo]
Relationships: Asta/Yuno (Black Clover), Leopold Vermillion/Yuno
Series: 2020 Bollywood Prompt Fills [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1969198
Comments: 13
Kudos: 38
Collections: IAmStoryteller's Best of Black Clover Fic Rec





	The Ballad of Yuno Grinberryall

**Author's Note:**

> The title is a play on the song, _The Ballad of Sweeney Todd_.

Instead of a church, Yuno grows up in an army.

* * *

It's not the Niaflem patriarch's first choice, but it's the only choice he's got, now that Dante Zogratis has set fire to the border villages. If anyone sees him flying over, not only will he perish, but so will the young prince.

So Sir Niaflem does the next best thing – he leaves the child with his son, Ralph, and goes off to fight a war he knows he's going to lose. It's the only way to buy Ralph and the little prince some time. He and Lady Niaflem agree – it's the only way.

And so that's how Yuno grows up – over Sir Niaflem and Lady Niaflem's ultimate sacrifice.

* * *

It's not a pleasant life, of course. Most of his time is occupied with training his magic, while the rest of it is spent learning every single regal duty there is to learn, because Yuno _will_ become king.

No – he will become a _godking._

* * *

There is power that resides inside of him, power he wakes up everyday by reminding himself that his mother was violated before she was murdered, and that his father was stabbed in the back by one of his own courtiers. The power ebbs and flowers like waves crashing against rocky cliffs. He reminds himself that he's Ciel Grinberryall's last gift to their kingdom, and that her sacrifice will not go to waste.

He reminds himself that Sir and Lady Niaflem were hung in the capital square like animals, stripped of their clothes, their titles, and their genitals.

He has to remind himself, because hatred in it of itself is a different kind of power.

* * *

He's killed sixty-four attendants of the Zogratis family by the time he turns fifteen.

At his grimoire ceremony, his body count shoots to a hundred in under an hour, because no one can know that a four-leaf clover has chosen a child from some village on the border of Spade and Clover.

And so at the tender age of fifteen, Yuno murders twenty-four other children his age, the grimoire tower's keeper, and parents and siblings of assorted children, all while the Resistance keeps the rest of the villagers glamoured and unaware that there is a massacre taking place inside of the stone structure.

It's for the kingdom, Yuno reminds himself. Thirty-six lives are worth the decades of prosperity that will come once he takes over. If Sir Niaflem and Lady Niaflem can give their lives for the kingdom, then so can thirty-six poor villagers.

At least, that's what Yuno tells himself at night.

* * *

Diamond doesn't bother them because they fear the Dark Triad. They've focused their attention on Clover, and it helps the Resistance that there's one less nuisance to worry about while they work to destroy the Zogratis' influence and infrastructure.

But news travels fast, and when word arrives that terrorists have attacked Clover's capital, the Resistance can't help but scramble.

One man's trouble is another man's opportunity, after all.

* * *

Ralph is his father, his brother, his harshest critic – and the one he owes his life to.

Ralph tells him that they've agreed to assist Clover with the terrorists in exchange for monetary funds. Yuno's going in as an elite, yet expendable, soldier because Ralph hasn't told them the prince is alive, and all Resistance members are bound by a blood curse to protect the secret of Yuno's heritage until the day Yuno decides to speak it into existence.

Yuno simply nods, because he understands the implications perfectly. He has to kill to earn those funds, funds that will help to purchase loyalty from the coin-lusting cronies favoring the Dark Triad's reign.

He's also going to scout. He needs to know who the major players are, find their weaknesses, and hone in on those that are the most susceptible to coercion. When he becomes king, he will need agents across the continent. Diamond can easily be brought to its knees and wiped off the map, but Clover is still too strong, too full of resources to just disregard like Diamond.

So Yuno goes – he goes to fight for another kingdom, so when it's time for him to ascend, _they_ will owe _him_.

* * *

It _almost_ goes according to plan. When Yuno and four other Resistance soldiers enter Clover's borders, they expect blood, guts, and screaming children, but the last thing any of them are expecting is _ghosts_.

They're in the village closest to the border when the elf ghost enters Yuno.

They're in the village closest to the border when Yuno meets the black swordsman.

* * *

His soldiers balk in horror, of course, thinking their beloved prince is about to turn his wind spikes on them. When he grunts at them to shape the hell up and maintain their composure, they begin to laugh, because _of course,_ only their precious prince would be strong enough to defeat a bloody _ghost._

That should be the end of it, and Yuno should be moving towards the cancer they call the Shadow Palace, but something happens in that moment, a moment where a nun is pierced with a vine while protecting small children, a moment where Yuno hears an inhuman roar, and then looks down at a man charging towards another with a sword that eclipses him in height, a rampaging bull in the midst of weak peasants.

Everything _almost_ goes according to plan, except no one expects Yuno to hold up his hand and signal his men down. No one expects him to help a farmer with a black sword defeat an elf-possessed Magic Knight. No one expects him to instruct one of his soldiers to heal the nun.

No one expects Yuno to meet Asta, the farmer wielding a five leaf clover.

* * *

He learns that his elf is the unborn child of the Elf King.

It doesn't move him one bit, unlike his soldiers.

* * *

They go as quickly as they've come, and despite the widespread damage, Clover still hands over the promised funds, because if they don't, they know Wizard King Julius will die a second death, and permanently this time.

* * *

When the question of demons comes into play, Yuno has to bite his tongue. No one, not even Ralph, knows what he's planning to do if they can't take down the Zogratis and their demons with murder and money.

No one knows that he plans to erupt with hatred and awaken the fifth clover.

* * *

No one expects the attack on Diamond. All of their current plans have to be wiped, because now a new player wants to join – the Queen of Heart.

* * *

When Ralph tells him that they've agreed to a joint invasion of the Zogratis' castle, Yuno can only stare in dismay because bringing _other_ nations onto their soil has never been a part of the plan. Invasions are too risky, which is why the Resistance initially went with cold-blooded assassinations and buying out the merchant class.

Ralph tells him that despite their efforts, Zenon Zogratis has still managed to destroy half of Diamond in a week, that they've been unable to control their own enemy, and because of that failure, other nations are now involved, and if Yuno is to ascend, he'll have to deal with it.

Yuno nods hollowly, because he knows what that implies, understands that this is failure on his part, and that now he has to bow his head in shame.

* * *

He doesn't say who he is, keeps his face blank and his heart blanker, and takes instruction from the Queen of Heart and the King of Clover.

The plan is to attack in six months. The Magic Knights of Clover Kingdom think him too cold, so they don't interact with him. The Spirit Guardians know he's hiding something, but don't comment on it because they have better things to worry about, like their kidnapped Queen.

Yuno wonders why the black swordsman is not among them.

* * *

Sometime during their months of intense training, they go on a dungeon hunt that only serves to favor him further. That's where he meets Sylph, who deems him her beloved, and therefore her new companion.

The Resistance is thrilled, because _maybe,_ just maybe this is the silver lining to this alliance. The elemental spirit has chosen their Yuno, their prince, their future godking.

The fire mage from Clover who's been chosen by the Salamander only nods approvingly, because he is one of the few to properly glean how powerful Yuno _really_ is, and how much he does to restrain himself during battles so that half the battlefield isn't wiped off clean. He's also one of the few to treat Yuno with respect equivalent to his rank as an agent of Spade's Resistance.

The rest of the Clover and Heart mages are less than thrilled. Yuno even smells fear on some of them.

* * *

Somewhere during the training period, Yuno takes a private trip to the small village on the border separating Clover from Spade.

There he sees the black swordsman harvesting vegetables.

Yuno drops down right into the field, scares the living daylights out of the farmer, then holds out his hand to help the shorter man up off the ground.

The farmer and his family host him for the day, and offer him a cot and some blankets to sleep on. He politely declines, and promises to come back again.

He does, sporadically, until Asta kisses him one afternoon while they're by the river washing dirt off tatoes. Then, the visits are regular, and Yuno is eating at least one meal with them four times a week, and he's doing it when his soldiers think he's off training with Sylph, or learning curses, or killing Dante's foot soldiers indiscriminately.

* * *

He doesn't tell Ralph that he's fallen in love.

* * *

When two of Clover's Magic Knight captains get kidnapped, word starts to spread that there's an anti-magic sword somewhere in Clover Kingdom, and that they need the wielder in order to defeat the Dark Triad and rescue the two captains.

Except only Yuno and his soldiers know who the anti-magic wielder is, and none of them say a single word, not until the meeting is adjourned, and Yuno hightails it back to Hage with his soldiers in tow.

* * *

Yuno tells Asta the vice captain of the Black Bulls is coming for him, that he will use Asta to defeat the kings of Spade, and that Asta will likely die in the process.

Asta tells Yuno that he won't die, not if he has Yuno by his side.

* * *

Except that he does – Asta dies fighting, because Asta is just a farmer, and no amount of muscle and basic sword technique will balance out the fact that Asta has spent all of his life planting and harvesting tatoes and corn instead of battling magicians and demons.

Asta dies with a bone pierced through his chest, and it's the opening Noelle Silva needs to take off Zenon Zogratis' head. Gadjah the Spirit Guardian has already chopped Vanica Zogratis to pieces, and is now aiming for Dante's head.

Except that he doesn't make it to Dante in time, because Yuno gets to him first.

* * *

Dante talks a lot, but his words are useless. Megicula is still alive, and so is Zenon's demon and Lucifero, but they've all retreated back into the Underworld, because there's no point in favoring the Zogratis siblings anymore.

Maybe there _is_ a chance to win, and for his ascension is still to happen.

Except none of that matters, because he's carrying Asta's lifeless body is in his arms, and Dante is the one that raped and murdered his mother, and Dante's laughing, he's laughing so hard that he's doubling over and cackling his heart out.

And the hatred is erupting, it's erupting like a volcano on an ordinary day, a day when no one expects to die in pure agony.

The fifth clover appears with a demon that promises to bring Asta back, if only Yuno will succumb.

And so he does.

* * *

Yuno isn't a fool, of course. He's a murderer and a monster, but he's never been a fool, and he knows that Asta is dead, just like his parents are dead, just like Ralph's parents are dead, and dead is as good as gone.

All Yuno has left is his fifth clover, and so he calls upon the demon who's latched itself to him, and orders both it and Sylph to kill everyone and everything that the Zogratis hold dear.

Then he locks the door, separating himself and Dante from the Magic Knights and the Spirit Guardians.

Dante laughs at him some more, but Yuno is quick, quicker than he's ever been, and his newly sharpened teeth are latched onto Dante's throat before Dante can realize what's happening.

When Gadjah and Noelle Silva finally break down the door, Yuno is half-way through eating Dante's flesh. They balk at him, but don't stop him.

He eats until he's picked all of Dante's bones clean.

* * *

True to its word, the demon brings Asta's lifeless body back, so now Yuno haunts his castle with a zombie in tow, one that never ages, never eats, never sleeps. It's his punishment, he knows, for murdering children his age, for becoming the same kind of monster the Zogratis' were, for thinking that his power wouldn't come at a price.

Regardless, Yuno still curls up to it at night because at least it _looks_ like Asta.

* * *

His ascension is met with thunderous applause, and it's only at his coronation that the rest of the kingdoms learn that he's not just an agent of Spade who made the mistake of falling in love with some magicless peasant who would eventually be used as a sacrifice.

He's their godking as well.

* * *

Sylph and the demon get along famously. They both love Yuno deeply in different ways.

Sylph loves him because of his mana; the demon loves him because he eats people.

* * *

The members of the Resistance know and keep it to themselves. All kings have their secrets – even one who's aligned itself with a demon.

Clover and Heart know too, because of their Magic Knights and Spirit Guardians who fought in the castle that day and found him eating Dante's heart when they broke down the door.

Heart keeps its distance. They send Yuno food as token of their gratitude, which he then distributes to the border villages who are still recovering from almost twenty years of war.

Clover doesn't care. They send him a groom instead, because who cares if the new Spade King is just another breed of the same kind of monster? As long as Spade stays in its wintry landscape, Clover is fine sacrificing yet another citizen. An arrangement between gentlemen, is what Ralph calls it.

They send him the Salamander's younger brother, a man named Leopold.

* * *

The marriage takes place within Spade's borders, less than a month after Yuno's eighteenth birthday. Wizard King Julius presents Yuno his groom, a hundred soldiers, six crates of gold, a host of other gifts, and Mereoleona Vermillion. Fuegoleon Vermillion is not in attendance because he's currently in jail for treason, has had his elemental spirit subdued and his magic stifled because he raised a blade to Julius' throat for first having sacrificed a magicless civilian, and now for selling his little brother off to a cannibal.

Yuno pities the man, because he is the only man from Clover Kingdom that has ever respected him, and the only man of Clover, besides Asta, that Yuno has respect for.

Mereoleona is the eldest of the Vermillions, and she's here as Leopold's eternal bodyguard, because she refuses to let her brother walk into the demon's castle alone. She hates Yuno just as much as Fuegoleon does, but she's not driven by emotion. She knows that she can't deny the Wizard King's will without having herself thrown in jail, since that would leave her brother all alone in some foreign country swarming with demons. Mereoleona instead takes the diplomatic route because at least then, if anything goes wrong, she can kill Yuno herself before escaping with Leopold.

Yuno supposes that's fair.

* * *

Their first night at the castle, Yuno brings them both down to the dungeon where Zogratis' loyalists are locked up. He then proceeds to eat a man in full sight of both brother and sister.

Leopold throws up while Mereoleona watches. After he's finished eating, he speaks directly to the older woman, tells her that his eating flesh is a part of his contract with his demon, and so as long as he eats regularly, Leopold will be fine.

And Mereoleona accepts this, because a demon is a demon, but contracts are still bound in blood.

* * *

It takes months for Leopold to be able to look him in the eye. They sleep on different sides of the castle, Leopold with a room right next to his sister's, while Yuno sleeps next to a zombie.

* * *

The kingdom recovers, and prosperity comes in different ways. For the first time in almost twenty years, no one in Spade dreads the long winter.

* * *

Leopold shoots fire the first time he meets the zombie, but his flames are quenched before they can hit the creature who just stands there, eternally dazed.

Sylph whacks him on the skull, tells him to be careful, since Asta is Yuno's precious person.

* * *

It takes many more months before Leopold can bring up the fact that there's a zombie who lives in the castle. Contrary to popular belief, Yuno is not afraid to speak about his Asta, and so he answers all of Leopold's questions while Mereoleona merely huffs with disdain.

Their friendship starts there, and steadily grows as the months get colder.

* * *

It's Leopold who eventually admits to him that Asta deserves better.

* * *

They go to Hage together because Yuno can't do it alone, with Mereoleona still the ever-present shadow. They do it as a diplomatic move, one that he knows will bring nothing but misery to the poor father and nun who've lived over a year without their Asta.

Yuno does it because the kingdom is recovering, and that means he's run out of excuses.

He has his demon break the spell hours before they arrive at the village. He wraps the cold body in straw and leaves, before dropping pink orchids into the wooden coffin.

He reintroduces himself to the Church members, and then introduces his husband. Then he hands over the body. They open the box and find their Asta dead.

They ask why he took so long.

Yuno tells them it's because he is a coward.

* * *

It's the middle of winter, so the ground is too hard to dig a grave.

So instead, the Father and Sister choose to cremate him. Leopold provides the flames, and they stand and watch as Asta finally rests in peace.

* * *

When they return to the castle, Yuno considers jumping off his balcony.

It's only after Sylph reminds him that she'll always be there to catch him that he finally steps down from the ledge. Sylph holds his face, kisses his cheeks, and drinks his tears, tells him that this pain is the price of power. The demon slithers out of his grimoire and joins the pair, hugs Yuno and plays with his hair, and tells him that it's not so bad being a monster. Sometimes fate does it to the best of them, and perhaps if Yuno was born somewhere else, or if someone else raised him, maybe things would be different, but they are not. He has a kingdom to serve, is a godking now, so he must live. He must see this through until the end.

Leopold runs in hours later, screaming at Yuno because it's snowing and Yuno is just sitting there on his balcony, freezing to death while Sylph and the demon laugh.

Leopold drags him inside, starts a fire, and strips Yuno of his frozen clothes before wrapping him in blankets and forcing lukewarm soup and water down his throat.

He lives, because he owes it to his kingdom to live, because he has to pay a price for becoming a monster, and because Asta is dead. He owes it to his beloved to do this correctly, and so he does.

For the first time in years, Yuno sleeps well.

* * *

Leopold kisses him a month later, his sister gagging in the background while Yuno stands stiff, his paperwork already on the floor.

* * *

He takes Leopold a month after their first kiss, after the conclusion of Ralph's wedding. The celebration invites the whole citizenry of Spade to the King's palace, and Yuno shares the wealth and food with all the attendees, because he's done what he's done for his kingdom, and if his kingdom can't eat, then neither can he.

Leopold stays by his side the entire time, seeing Ralph and his wife off to their new home, which is just a suite a few floors below Yuno's floor, because Ralph is still Yuno's father, his brother, his best friend, and his advisor.

Leopold kisses Yuno tenderly in Yuno's room, which Leopold visits often, except this time, Mereoleona isn't banging on the door and telling Leopold to hurry it up because it's getting late.

This time, Leopold kisses him again and again until their clothes start to come off, and Yuno realizes that this is different, that this is it.

This is his future.

Yuno makes love to him as gently as he can, knowing that this is his last chance at salvation.

* * *

The years go by, and the kingdom continues to recover. The mountains remain bountiful with snow, and the citizens are happy.

Fuegoleon's revolt succeeds three years after Yuno's marriage to Leopold. They meet at the border of Spade, Leopold's hand firm and warm in his own, as Mereoleona stands guard with Sylph and his demon.

It all falls apart when Fuegoleon breaks down. Leopold runs into his big brother's arms while Mereoleona trudges over to join her sobbing brothers.

Yuno offers them their privacy by staring up at the sky, wondering when the first frost will be this year.

* * *

And so the story goes on, for many more years. There is bliss, and recovery, and genuine friendship between Spade and Clover, because Fuegoleon is a good man and has the good of his kingdom in mind, and Yuno will keep paying the price to protect his kingdom.

Yuno names Ralph's daughter as his heir, and so she begins her own training, under the tutelage of her King, her King's consort, and her father, the Royal Advisor.

The years go by but the cold remains, and finally, his time comes. His legs give out from underneath him, and he falls to the floor, papers scattering everywhere as snow falls listlessly on the pine trees just outside his windows. He's seventy-nine years old, and it's been too long.

Sylph cries into his shoulder while his demon holds him tight. The light fades slowly but surely, and Yuno can feel his heartbeats slowing down with every second. He dies with a smile on his face, hoping that it was all worth it, because a man's life is only as good as his legacy, and he hopes that everyone he's killed, everyone he's _eaten_ , were a testament to the faith that he's had in his kingdom.

Leopold finds him an hour later, his body cold and his grimoire without an owner. Sylph is already gone, on to slumber for another thousand years before she falls in love again.

And that's how it ends, an old man dead on the ground while another old man cries over his body, while an old woman watches on.

And that's how it ends – cold and mundane.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> The 'black swordman' is absolutely homage to my boy Gus from Buzzerk.


End file.
